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But it\u2019s not just a miracle, Batra added. It\u2019s that the characters are primed to have a miracle happen to them.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThey are ready for either consigning themselves to the usual flames of their life, or ready for something different,\u201d he said. \u201cThe story puts them in the position of choosing between those two things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show, which begins previews Sunday, May 17, brings together Tony Award-winning director Rachel Chavkin (\u201cHadestown\u201d), the Lazours \u2014 songwriting brothers Patrick and Daniel Lazour \u2014 along with Batra and Gajjar (who\u2019s performed in \u201cLa La Land\u201d and with Madonna). All felt drawn to what Gajjar described as the film\u2019s \u201cunexpected\u201d love story.<\/p>\n
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Lyricist and librettist Ritesh Batra, second left, and composer and lyricist Patrick\u00a0Lazour, right, discuss \u201cThe Lunchbox\u201d rehearsal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Feria\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s a real, relentless humanism to the movie,\u201d Patrick Lazour said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It takes an almost affectionate look at the indignities of life \u2014 the crowded trains, the annoying coworker who won\u2019t go away, the neighboring auntie who can smell all your cooking and overhear everything you say but is always ready to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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As Ila (Nimrat Kaur) and Saajan (Irrfan Khan) bond over notes passed back and forth with the lunchbox, the film is whimsical without being sentimental. It doesn\u2019t shy away from either character\u2019s gutting loneliness or insist those feelings be magically resolved. But it allows magical things to happen, tossing them off matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is heart. There is sentiment,\u201d Chavkin said. \u201cBut it is trusted, because the plot structure is so impeccable, to stay almost at bay.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The creatives\u2019 task is to give the audience \u201cjust enough,\u201d she added, describing the tone as \u201cdelicate.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Director Rachel Chavkin speaks to the cast during \u201cThe Lunchbox\u201d rehearsal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Feria\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
In translating that tone to musical theater, the Lazours had nearly a blank slate. Max Richter\u2019s scoring in the quiet, airy film is so minimal that early on in the process, Daniel Lazour jokingly wondered, \u201cDoes this person like music?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Batra pointed out there\u2019s an obvious way they could have written songs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it’s driven by so much internal thought, we could have just gone in and musicalized all the voiceover,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be fair, there is some of that in the stage version, \u201cbut it came alive for us as a musical when we started finding songs in between the seams of the story,\u201d Batra explained, noting, for example, a moment of active waiting at a caf\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daniel Lazour even found himself using the words \u201cditty\u201d or \u201cflourish\u201d to describe what they were writing because \u201csong\u201d didn\u2019t always feel right.<\/p>\n
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Actor Kuhoo Verma performs a solo during \u201cThe Lunchbox\u201d rehearsal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Feria\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Another apparent challenge is that in the film, the leads never meet face to face or appear in the same frame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cI spent a lot of time thinking about, \u2018Well, how do I connect them spiritually?\u2019\u201d Batra recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since film is a visual medium, he went on, \u201cI would have her putting a thread around the stuffed brinjal\u201d \u2014 eggplant \u2014 \u201dand then cut to him opening it.\u201d In another cut, the characters make parallel motions flicking away a fly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the stage is built for stuff like that,\u201d Batra continued. \u201cTwo actors can be on the same stage at the same time, and we can believe that they both are not aware of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a beautiful, deeply yummy theatrical tension,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also pointed out that in the stage version, the main scene partner of Ila (Kuhoo Verma) serves what the team calls a \u201cGhost of Christmas Future\u201d role in her life, while Saajan (Manu Narayan) has a \u201cGhost of Christmas Past\u201d figure. That parallel underlines the story\u2019s existentialism: If family togetherness and youth entrap, so do solitude and age.<\/p>\n
![\"Actor]()
<\/p>\n
Actor Manu Narayan, center, rehearses with the chorus during \u201cThe Lunchbox\u201d rehearsal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don Feria\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
That might sound depressing. But the magic of \u201cThe Lunchbox\u201d is how it\u2019s not depressing at all.<\/p>\n
During rehearsal \u2014 which featured a tiffin-laden cart, a bicycle and a train car swirling about Berkeley Rep\u2019s studio \u2014 Chavkin\u2019s direction conjured twinkly, wistful warmth. When she spoke to Caryna Shah, one of two youth actors who plays Ila\u2019s daughter, it was with the life-giving seriousness that respects a child as a full collaborator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Working with actor Anisha Nagarajan about the moment her character realizes she\u2019s getting left behind, Chavkin emphasized not spite or self-pity, but something gentler. Chavkin held a fist close to her chest. She beamed without smiling big, somehow \u2014 like she was carrying an incandescent treasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Rachel Chavkin, left, speaks with librettist and lyricist Ritesh Batra during \u201cThe Lunchbox\u201d rehearsal.\u00a0 Don Feria\/For the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[329,143,145,144,1058],"class_list":["post-319919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}